Americas rivals the United States and Canada will go head-to-head in the final Round 1 game of the Pacific Nations Cup on Sunday the 28th of July.
The United States will begin their World Cup preparations with a grudge match against neighbours Canada. The Americans are currently on a four-game winning streak against the Canadians and will be confident of making it five wins in a row.
United States v Canada
Sunday 28 July
Infinity Park
02:00
To Win (80 Mins)
United States
Draw
Canada
*Odds to be added upon release
Handicap
United States
Canada
*Handicap to be added upon release
United States
Former Sharks coach Gary Gold will be looking to finetune America’s preparations for the up coming World Cup by using the Pacific Nations Cup to blood a few new players and working on some combinations.
The States come into this tournament in rather rude health with their domestic league, Major League Rugby, starting to produce some solid young players. They have also recruited former Springbok World Cup winner Jaque Fourie as their defence coach.
The Americans have won nine of their last ten games against with their opponents best result in this run being a 28-28 draw in 2017.
Canada
The Canadians will also be using the Pacific Nations Cup to sort out their game prior to the World Cup. They were actually extremely lucky to qualify for Japan 2019 as they needed to go through the repechage stage where they Hong Kong, Kenya and Germany to claim a berth in Tokyo.
While the Canadians do have some talented players to call upon, including Glasgow Warriors man DTH van der Merve, they don’t have as good a squad as their American counterparts.
Verdict: United States
This could get messy for the Canadians. The United States have stepped their game up under the guidance of Gary gold, and I reckon they bag a win in excess of 10 points here.
